How my New Year’s resolution relates to OnBase professionals: part deux

If you are following along, you know that my New Year’s resolution is to learn a new language. In this case, French.

You will be happy to know that I am still at it, which is not the norm when it comes to resolutions.

Truth be told, recently, I was feeling pretty good about my journey to learn French. Every day, I was logging in to the software I’m using to parler Francais, learning new words, reading new sentences and feeling as if I was making progress.

The learning curve now includes badges

Then one day, there it was, I had earned a badge! What was the badge, you are wondering?

It was a bold announcement that I was … one percent fluent in French. One percent. Probably won’t be adding that to my LinkedIn profile.

Le sigh. This was three months into my journey. Every day, I was making sure that I dedicated time to learning French. Watching videos, listening to podcasts, completing lessons, watching ‘hilarious’ sitcoms and even making flashcards for those words that tripped me up more than once.

At first, this discouraged me. How can I possibly only know one percent?

This journey was going to take a lot longer than one year! I actually took a couple of days off, feeling completely defeated. Imagine if I had set out to learn Mandarin?

However, if you know me, I don’t give up easily (or maybe at all). So, I came back. I logged back in. I was inspired to learn more.

What would it take to become two percent fluent? Would that take another three months?

Would 100 percent take 300 months? While I intend to keep this momentum going, I certainly hope to be able to speak French before 2042. I found a website predicting that the Summer Olympics will be in Paris in 2052, so I’m tracking well for that.

The good news is, my diligence began to pay off. Over the next couple of weeks, I progressed. Each badge gave me hope.

Still don’t want to add to my LinkedIn profile, thanks for asking. You’re probably wondering, how does this relate to OnBase? I’m so glad you asked!

Respecter votre plan (stick to your plan)

When new OnBase administrators complete the System Administration course, they feel like they know it all. Then they set their sights higher and learn about functionality such as WorkView, Workflow, Unity Forms, Application Enabler – the list goes on and on. Additionally, each industry has their own particular pieces of OnBase magic.

Then, what happened to me happens to them. They start to feel like they don’t know anything. They probably feel like they just got one of my “1%” badges.

After all, it can be daunting to look at resources like the Workflow page on Community and see all the conversations happening every day. Thousands of people talking about Workflow. How can there be so much to talk about?

I can’t imagine what they think when they hear about the 115 Workflow solutions we’ve built and use internally at Hyland.

But that is exactly why we have Community. Why Training.OnBase.com exists. You see, you are closer than you think. You just have to stick to your resolution!

Each little piece of knowledge brings you closer to being fluent in OnBase. Yes, OnBase is its own language. How is that you ask?

With capabilities around capture, storing content, business process management, file sync and share, purpose-built integrations, case management systems and more, admittedly, we have a language of our own.

But, the more you learn, the more powerful you are. Fulfilling your OnBase, er, New Year’s resolution means having the ability to recognize areas of opportunity all across your company with a technology platform for content, processes and cases that you already own! As I imagine faces in Paris surprised by my ability to speak to them in their native tongue, imagine the surprise in your boardroom when you create the perfect solution for a critical business process!

Carissa has taught more than 2,000 OnBase customers and partners how to get the most out of their ECM solutions since she joined the Hyland team in 2007. As the Hyland Global Services Program Manager, Carissa uses her more than 20 years’ experience as a software developer, trainer and business development manager to provide a wide variety of techniques, perspective and skills to the OnBase community. You can also find her (11 years running) as a speaker at the annual OnBase user conference, CommunityLIVE (formerly OTTC). When she isn’t sharing her excitement about OnBase, she can be found running, SUP-ing or cycling with her friends and family.

1 Response

Carissa you are exactly right. There is so much to learn in OnBase, but each skill you learn in OnBase, may be the key to a solution to transform and streamline a process. That’s why it’s important to keep up with updates, OnBase skills, training, and tools available.